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Job 39

Job 39

[1] “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you observe the calving of the does?
[2] Can you number the months that they fulfill,
and do you know the time when they give birth,
[3] when they crouch, bring forth their offspring,
and are delivered of their young?
[4] Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open;
they go out and do not return to them.

[5] “Who has let the wild donkey go free?
Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,
[6] to whom I have given the arid plain for his home
and the salt land for his dwelling place?
[7] He scorns the tumult of the city;
he hears not the shouts of the driver.
[8] He ranges the mountains as his pasture,
and he searches after every green thing.

[9] “Is the wild ox willing to serve you?
Will he spend the night at your manger?
[10] Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes,
or will he harrow the valleys after you?
[11] Will you depend on him because his strength is great,
and will you leave to him your labor?
[12] Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain
and gather it to your threshing floor?

[13] “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly,
but are they the pinions and plumage of love?
[14] For she leaves her eggs to the earth
and lets them be warmed on the ground,
[15] forgetting that a foot may crush them
and that the wild beast may trample them.
[16] She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers;
though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear,
[17] because God has made her forget wisdom
and given her no share in understanding.
[18] When she rouses herself to flee,
she laughs at the horse and his rider.

[19] “Do you give the horse his might?
Do you clothe his neck with a mane?
[20] Do you make him leap like the locust?
His majestic snorting is terrifying.
[21] He paws in the valley and exults in his strength;
he goes out to meet the weapons.
[22] He laughs at fear and is not dismayed;
he does not turn back from the sword.
[23] Upon him rattle the quiver,
the flashing spear, and the javelin.
[24] With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground;
he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
[25] When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’
He smells the battle from afar,
the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

[26] “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars
and spreads his wings toward the south?
[27] Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up
and makes his nest on high?
[28] On the rock he dwells and makes his home,
on the rocky crag and stronghold.
[29] From there he spies out the prey;
his eyes behold it from far away.
[30] His young ones suck up blood,
and where the slain are, there is he.” (ESV)